Post by NZBC on Aug 5, 2012 21:19:12 GMT 12
CHINESE ARRIVALS. CRITICISM BY LABOUR MEMBERS (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, Tuesday. Tho House of Representatives went into Committee this evening on the Treaties of Peace Bill. Mr. J. McCombs (Lyttelton) raised objection to 4SO Chinese being taken to i Samoa recently, when only five wives wpre allowed with them. The Minister explained that about five hundred Chinese recently went to the Islands and there were very few women i with them. Tho Chinese Government as not agreeable to women going over- j ■[•as. The men left China of their own !>ee wLU. I fr. P. Fraser (Wellington Central) :iid the Minister's statement was etart-I iiii; and important, and amounted to I liis, that Chinese were not indentured in China because the Chinese Govern- j ment would not permit indenturing in China. They could not be indentured in Hongkong because the British Government would not permit it. They could not come in ships under the British Hap, o they had to come under the New Zealand flag before they could be indentured. The Prime Minister denied that there was anything in the shape of slavery in Samoa. The member for Lyttelton had ilpclnred that the Government was using indentured labour for profit. That was' not true. Owing to delays in connection I with the details of tho mandate it was j necessary to have the term of the present Actis operation extended, so that the Government could take steps to do something to save valuable plantations from complete ruin. It was for thif purpose that Chinese labour was needed. As soon as tho mandate was complete I niul the plantations were rehabilitated j the Chinese would be repatriated, and I I'fi hoped there would be none there after that. Dr. Thacker (Christchurch East) said lie opposed indentured labour, but he j was amused at the manner in which certain members spoke of "slavery" in the Islands. Even in New Zealand they j' had men working rr members of unions,! and if they did not want to obey the i union "bowses" they were liable to ex- j' pulsion. That seemed to him very much i like indentured labour. After several other members had spoken, thn Hon. Dr. M. Pomare said the l speeches that evening had revealed to him a great deal of hypocrisy.
Auckland Star, Volume LI, Issue 233, 29 September 1920, Page 8